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Christian character — the greatest of all battles 
for every one of us — if you wish other good 
reading for yourself or your comrades, or if 
you want to sei d something to aid in supply- 
ing our Army and Navy boys with this and 
other good literature, write to 

War Literature Fund, 
AMERiCAr; Sunday-School Union, 

1816 Chestnut Street, Phila. 



A Leader of Freemen 



THE LIFE STORY 

of 

Samuel Chapman Armstrong 

Brevet Brigadier-General, U. S. A. 



EVERETT t1* and PAUL G. TOMLINSON 



ARMY AND NAVY EDITION 



PHILADELPHIA 

AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION 
1816 Chestnut Street 



LCzss/ 



Copyright, 1917, by the 
American Sunday-School Union 



All rights reserved 



'.r-j/ 
15 1917 



PREFACE 



This is a brief story of the life of a man who 
"made good." Doubtless he never once used 
that expression. Very likely he never heard it. 
It is equally certain, too, that he never applied 
it to himself or even dreamed that he had won 
any such title. If he had thought so this story 
would not have been written. For making 
good is something like popularity; — the man 
who tries to be popular never succeeds. If one 
makes friends he does so because of what he 
reaUy is, not because of what he does. If a 
fellow's mates do not like him for what he is, 
they certainly will not be drawn to him by his 
open efforts to make himself popular. And 
the same thing is true in making good. Many 
a man who really is making good would hardly 
beheve you if you were to tell him of the fact. 
On the other hand, if he should tell you that he 
is making good you would hardly beUeve him. 

Good old Archbishop Whately used to say of 

a certain young preacher that "he aimed at 

nothing and hit it." Very likely there is many 

a man who may be doing just that as far as his 

3 



4 PREFACE 

own life is concerned. He, too, aims at noth- 
ing and hits it. A boat never drifts except in 
one direction and that is downstream. If a 
man moves against the stream he has to pull 
and sometimes pull hard. 

General Armstrong had two qualities that 
distinguished him from others. In his life he 
did not drift and he did have a mark at which 
he was aiming. And because he had these two 
qualities there are thousEuids today who honor 
his memory as they do that of very few. 

Years ago one winter day there was a sharp 
contest in the band of boys who attended a 
district school as to which one could make the 
straightest tracks in the snow across a certain 
well-remembered "ten-acre lot." There was 
one there who won every time and he won eas- 
ily. The determination of the others to beat 
him was keen, but did not bring success. 
They watched their feet with increasing care; 
they walked slowly and carefully across the 
snow-clad field; but in spite of all their efforts 
the winner still won. At last he explained to 
the others the secret of his success. "You 
fellows watch your footsteps. I don't watch 
them at all. I fix my eyes on that old elm on 
the other side of the lot and then put straight 
for it. I don't once look away. I don't pay 
any attention to my feet or to my tracks. 



PREFACE 5 

They will take care of themselves if I take care 
to look straight at that old tree that stands by 
the line fence." 

And General Armstrong's eyes were fixed 
upon a mark. Of course it was in front of him 
and it always remained ahead of him. But he 
followed it and his tracks were straight and led 
him in a straight way nearer the goal he had 
set. 

The writers wish to acknowledge their in- 
debtedness for the valuable assistance they 
have received. The authorities at Hampton 
have been most kind in providing much valu- 
able material concerning the life and work of 
General Armstrong. The very excellent biog- 
raphy written by his daughter has been freely 
used. For the information provided by his 
college classmates and by others who were as- 
sociated with him in college, in the army, or 
in the work at Hampton we are also under deep 
obHgations. The character and work of the 
man are so stirring and sterling that there are 
few young men who come in contact with him 
who will not be inspired with something of the 
same high ideal which drew him on. As 
Colonel Hopkins has said, "Nothing would 
more surely promote the efficiency of our mili- 
tary service than an adoption of the lofty ideals 
of duty, self-sacrifice, and an aspiration to 



6 PREFACE 

obtain the standard of courage, fitness, and 
hardihood which belonged to Samuel C. Arm- 
strong." 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Boyhood in Hawaii 9 

II. GoiJLEGE Life 17 

III. Life in the Army 22 

IV. On the Mexican Border 45 

V. The Freedmen's Bureau 50 

VI. Founding Hampton Institute 57 

VII. His Work Is Done 74 

VIII. How Others Saw Him 81 



CHAPTER I 

BOYHOOD IN HAWAII 

"To put God and country first, ourselves 
afterward." 

These words, written by Samuel Chapman 
Armstrong two years and a half before he died, 
describe very well the aim of his entire life. 
Never did he consider his own interests. He 
threw himseK heart and soul into whatever he 
did, and, always with a definite aim in view, 
stuck to his task until it was completed. 

He made a success of everything he tried. 
In August, 1862, he entered the Union Army as 
a captain in the One Hundred and Twenty- 
fifth New York Volunteers. Three years later, 
when only twenty-six years old, he was mus- 
tered out as Brevet Brigadier-General of Vol- 
unteers. Three years after that he founded 
Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, 
and he Uved to see it grow into a great school, 
due, in most peat, to his own tireless efforts and 
self-sacrifice. 

That was his greatest work, the one for 
which he wiU always be remembered. There 
he taught 'the negro youths to become useful 
citizens, returning them to their people as 
educated men and women, skilled in many 
9 



10 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

branches of industrial pursuits He laid great 
emphasis on the industrial side of teaching, 
making it one of his first endeavors that the 
students graduated from Hampton should be 
qualified to earn a living for themselves. He 
realized that the negro's best chance lay in his 
ability to use his hands skilfully. Industrial 
education had been considered a failure until 
Samuel Armstrong demonstrated its possibil- 
ities and proved that, properly taught, it could 
be made an unqualified success. The industrial 
idea has since become almost as popular among 
the white people as among the colored, and 
institutions have sprung up all over the 
country for the industrial education of young 
men and women. Most of these institutions 
got their ideas from Hampton and were mod- 
eled on the same plan, so that it can easily be 
seen what an influence Armstrong's success has 
had on the whole country. 

Booker T. Washington, the famous head of 
Tuskegee Institute, was educated at Hampton 
and planned his own school along much the 
same lines. It might not be amiss to quote his 
words as he pays a tribute to his old teacher and 
friend: "I think I am not going too far when I 
make one other suggestion, and that is that the 
whole country owes General Armstrong a debt 
not only for the rapid and permanent growth 



BOYHOOD IN HAWAII 11 

of industrial education among the colored 
people and white people of the South, but it is 
to him that all are indebted more than to any 
other man for the growth of hand-training in 
the northern and western states. It is seldom 
in my opinion that one individual has had the 
opportunity through a single idea to revolution- 
ize the educational thought and activity of so 
large a proportion of the world as has been true 
of the founder of Hampton." 

He was born January 30, 1839, on the island 
of Mani, Hawaiian Islands. His parents, 
Richard and Clarissa Armstrong, were mis- 
sionaries. Eight years before the birth of 
Samuel they had said good-bye to their families 
and friends and set sail for Hawaii, expecting 
never to return. The father came of Scotch- 
Irish parentage and was brought up in the 
wholesome farm-life of central Pennsylvania, 
while Clarissa was reared amid similar sur- 
roundings in Massachusetts. Hard work had 
always been the lot of each, a splendid training 
for life. That husband and wife were made of 
hardy stuff and that they were successful in 
their missionary work is shown by the fact 
that on one occasion, when Mr. Armstrong was 
compelled to go to Honolulu from his post in 
the outlying islands, he entrusted his wife and 
infant son and daughter, during his absence, to 



12 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

the care of a cannibal chief. The father was 
absent for several weeks, but every night the 
savage chieftain guarded his wife and babies, 
sleeping in front of their tent. 

Stern lives they led and they brought their 
children up on the same plan. "Spare the rod 
and spoil the child" was their doctrine at all 
times. In their household justice, truth, and 
respect for duty were first principles, and right 
was put before pleasure. The children of the 
missionaries stood in awe of Mrs. Armstrong 
particularly, but it must not be supposed that 
the small boys living there in Hawaii did not 
enjoy themselves. They rode horseback, swam 
and sailed, the glorious waters around the is- 
lands being almost ideal for water sports. 
Forty years later General Armstrong referred 
to his summers spent at a sugar plantation in 
Hawaii as the happiest days of his life; the boys 
rode donkeys, ate sugar-cane, bathed in the 
deep gulches, and explored the wild country 
and tropical forests round about. 

That young Samuel was a lively youth is 
attested by the fact that in order to keep him 
quiet his father was sometimes obliged to make 
him sit on the platform with him during church 
services, and on one occasion had to interrupt 
his sermon and stop a quarrel between Sam £ind 
one of his small brothers. Like all boys they 



BOYHOOD IN HAWAII 13 

loved to play at war; they had little leaden 
cannon out of which they fired powder and 
shot, and their heroes were all of the Mexican 
War, recently ended. 

The natives were a continual source of inter- 
est to the boys. In particular, they enjoyed 
the parties at the royal palace, where, to quote 
General Armstrong, "the gorgeous uniforms £uid 
noble beaiing of the chiefs threw foreign dip- 
lomats and naval officers into the shade." 
"Soldiers stood around with old flint-lock 
muskets as harmless as popguns, while the 
band furnished alluring music, and royal fat 
females paddled from room to room, the em- 
bodiment of serene dignity." 

Riding trips through the islands, taken alone 
or in company with his father, brought Arm- 
strong into close touch with the natives. He 
slept night after night in their huts and came 
to know them as a childish race but capable of 
development, if properly taught; he came to 
feel toward them as a protector and helper, the 
attitude every true Christian takes toward 
those who are inferior to him in opportunity 
and ability. 

His early education he received at the 
"Royal School" at Punahou, founded in 1840 
for the teaching of the young native chiefs. 
Here he mingled with the native boys and girls, 



14 A LEADER OF FREEMEN] 

one of his playmates being Liliuokalani, who 
later became queen and was well known 
throughout a large part of the world. In 1855 
the name of the institution was changed to 
Oahu College, and advanced subjects were in- 
troduced into the course of study; in fact, 
Armstrong took the first two years of a coUege 
course there, remaining as a student until 1860, 
when he entered the Junior class at Wilhams 
CoUege, WiUiamsto\^TQ, Mass. 

While a student at Oahu College and when 
only twenty years old he became editor of a 
native paper, the Hae Hawaii. The king be- 
came one of the editorial staff and in a short 
time after Armstrong took charge the sub- 
scriptions increased by nearly six hundred; the 
natives read the paper freely and the young 
editor acquired a wide reputation. He was also 
chief clerk to his father, and these activities, in 
addition to his studies, kept him extremely 
busy. His character was also being developed 
by his work, and in September, 1860, an event 
occurred which made a man of him almost 
overnight; — his father died as the result of 
being thrown from his horse. 

It had been Richard Armstrong's dearest 
wish that his son Samuel should go to Williams 
College to be under the influence of its presi- 
dent, Dr. Mark Hopkins, who at that time was 



BOYHOOD IN HAWAII 15 

looked upon as probably the leading teacher of 
philosophy in America. His father's death 
caused Samuel to decide at once, and he set out 
from Hawaii shortly afterward, in order to enter 
college at the beginning of the winter term. A 
month later he arrived in New York, having 
traveled by way of the Isthmus of Panama and 
taking ship from there to New York. 

He left four sorrowing sisters, a mother, and 
a brother in Hawaii, and what he himself 
thought of the islands is shown by a letter 
which he wrote twenty-six years later to some 
young people there: "The beauty and grandeur 
of Hawaiian scenery is a noble teacher. . . . 
It will make you better men and women if 
you will let it. Get all of it you can. Your 
special gaieties, parties, and things are of no 
account whatever compared with the ministry 
of mountain and sea. Listen to them. Ap- 
proach and live with them all you can. Hear 
and heed these great silent teachers about you." 

New York City was a source of great pleasure 
to young Armstrong. The crowds and the 
buildings made a strong impression on a youth 
rcEU'ed in the wilds of a group of Pacific islands. 
An older brother a few years previously had 
settled in New York as a lawyer, and it was at 
his rooms at 28 Union Square that Samuel 
stayed, "away uptown and away up in the 



16 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

fourth story," as he described them in a letter 
to his mother. Fom'teenth Street could hardly 
be called "away uptown" now. He went to 
the Academy of Music and hstened to the opera, 
and the music thrilled him. In the same letter 
to his mother, referred to above, he described 
his feehngs and as was often the case wrote in a 
semi-humorous vein: "The opera was grand! 
Quite different from the chorus of ten thousand 
wild he-goats that usher in the morning and 
raise their clarion-hke matins on the crags of 
Waimanalo." 

Samuel's elder brother showed him the sights 
of New York, but his stay there was brief, and 
on December 1, 1860, he set out for WiUiams- 
town to take up his college studies. 



CHAPTER II 
COLLEGE LIFE 

Dr. John H. Denison, a classmate, writing 
in the Atlantic Monthly, February, 1894, a few 
months after Armstrong's death, describes his 
first impressions of the young Hawaiian Is- 
lander (Armstrong did not consider himself an 
American at that time) who had come to 
Williamstown to study. A few extracts from 
his article follow : 

It was during the winter of 1860, when I was room- 
ing in East CoUege at Williams, that into my life 
Nature flung a sort of cataclysm of health named Sam 
Armstrong, a cyclone from the South Seas, a Sandwich 
Islander, son of a missionary. He was an islander; his 
constitution smacked of the seas. There was about 
him something of the high courage and jollity of the 
tar; he carried with him the vitality of the ocean. 

What impressed one most was his schooling. He 
could manage a boat in a storm, teach school, edit a 
newspaper, assist in carrying on a government, take 
up a mechanical industry at will, understand the 
natives, sympathize with missionaries, talk with pro- 
found theorists, recite well in Greek or mathematics, 
conduct a class in geometry, and make no end of fun 
for httle children. 

Like other missionaries' sons, he poked fun at the 
natives and entertained small circles with the ridiculous 
phases of missionary life; yet he was a kind of mis- 
sionary in disguise, always ready to go out of his way 
for the purpose of slyly helping somebody up to a 
better moral or physical plane. Sometimes he seemed 
to have little respect for the spiritual; he shocked 
people by his levity and irreverence. Yet there was 

17 



18 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

about him at all times a profound reverence of spirit 
for God, manhood, womanhood, and all sacred reali- 
ties. He was also the most strenuous man that I ever 



Samuel Armstrong was lonely dm'ing the 
first weeks of his life at Williams He had been 
sent there to be with Dr. Hopkins, but he saw 
nothing of him for three months after his ar- 
rival. He had arrived during the winter vaca- 
tion and the place seemed to him forlorn and 
deserted, for he was unused to all the ice and 
snow and cold weather The beautiful Berk- 
shire Hills he described as "Nature's warts." 
He missed the tropical grandeur and the 
splendid mountains and volcanoes of his 
native Hawaii. 

Until the college termed opened, more than 
a month after his arrival, he Kved in a lodging- 
house in the town, spending his time in study, 
so that he might be on an equal footing with 
the rest of his class. From seven to nine hours 
a day he read Greek (Demosthenes), making up 
in four or five weeks the work of the preceding 
term and a portion of the Sophomore year 
Greek as well. 

With the return of the other students to 
college he was happier. He moved into a 
college dormitory and quickly entered into the 
life and activities of the students. His days 
were busy ones and the studies he pursued were 



COLLEGE LIFE 19 

hard, but he always found time for the care of 
his health. Every morning after prayers in 
the chapel he boxed a few rounds with one of 
his friends, and on Wednesday and Saturday 
afternoons, when there were no recitations, he 
explored the country-side and tramped over 
the hills. 

He was a great believer in health and cheer- 
fulness. He became worried about his mother 
and wrote her: "Don't let your health suffer. 
There is only one thing that will keep you up 
at home and that is cheerfulness; you must 
secure that at all events. If necessary, fill the 
house with cats from top to bottom, tie a dog to 
every lilac, and place monkeys in every tree; at 
any rate, keep cheerful." 

When March came Samuel moved his lodg- 
ings from the dormitory to President Hopkins' 
house. He was greatly pleased at the change, 
for he had conceived a warm friendship for the 
president's son, Albert, and had become a 
great admirer of the president himself. Presi- 
dent Garfield once described an ideal college as 
"a log with Mark Hopkins sitting on one end 
and a student on the other." He encouraged 
the free asking of questions in his classroom, had 
endless patience with those who were slow to 
learn ; and made the principle of common sense 
the main factor in all his teaching. A strong 



20 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

friendship, lifetime long, sprang up between 
the great educator and his eager and indus- 
trious pupil. "Whatever good teaching I have 
done has been Mark Hopkins teaching through 
me," Armstrong said in later years. He was 
also indebted to Doctor Hopkins for the devel- 
opment of a deep and genuine religious feeling. 

As time went on Samuel Armstrong grew to 
love his college as much as he had despised it 
upon his arrival. He made many staunch 
friends; was enthusiastically interested in his 
work; and enjoyed several trips to the Adi- 
rondacks and to New York, though he came to 
the conclusion that New York was "demoral- 
izing." It was with genuine regret that he 
parted from his college and classmates in 1862 
and went to New York, to await whatever 
fortune was in store for him. 

Meanwhile the Civil War was in progress and 
the military situation had been growing steadily 
more serious. The Union Army under Mc- 
Clellan had twice met the Confederates and 
had twice suffered severe defeats — at Fair 
Oaks and at Gaines's Mills. McClellan laid 
all blame for the disasters at the door of head- 
quarters and kept calling for more and more 
troops; Lincoln was eager to give his generals 
every chance for success and therefore issued a 
call for volunteers. 



COLLEGE LIFE 21 

Armstrong still looked upon Hawaii as his 
fatherland and consequently was not inspired 
with the intense patriotic feeling which burned 
in so many of the young men of the day. The 
right and wrong of the slave question began to 
impress itself upon his mind, however, and, as 
was his custom, he soon had formed a definite 
opinion in regard to it. No man of Armstrong's 
nature could fail to have a strong feehng of 
sympathy for a race downtrodden and op- 
pressed, human beings who had never been 
given a chance to better their condition in life. 
The more he thought about it the more strongly 
he became convinced that the Union was in the 
right and that a signal opportunity to do his 
share in the great cause of humanity was 
offered him. With these newly awakened con- 
victions, a strong affection for his adopted 
country began to assert itself within him, and 
he decided to cast in his lot with the United 
States of America. 



CHAPTER III 

LIFE IN THE ARMY 

Word came to Armstrong in the early sum- 
mer of 1862 that Colonel Willard, a regular 
army officer of high standing, was to raise a 
regiment of volunteers at Troy, N. Y. A short 
time later Armstrong was in Troy, had applied 
for a commission, and was presently actively 
engaged in recruiting. He put up a shanty on 
a public square, scattered posters, and went to 
work. The undertaking was intensely inter- 
esting to him, and as he expressed it, he met 
the very meanest and the very best of men, 
some enlisting for money and some solely for 
love of country. 

Armstrong's methods were successful, for he 
was the first man to fill his quota of recruits, 
and presently found himself captain of a com- 
pany. He also prided himself on the fact that 
his company contained the most respectable 
men in the regiment. Hardly could it be 
otherwise with his example before them; they 
knew that he was upright, honorable, and a 
Christian gentleman, who did his duty thor- 
oughly and was not afraid to do himself any- 
thing that he might require of his men. 

His brother relates an incident which took 
22, 



LIFE IN THE ARMY 23 

place in New York as the One Hundred and 
Twenty-fifth New York Volunteers were pass- 
ing through on their way to the front, which 
may serve to show one reason why Armstrong's 
men loved him. The regiment was encamped 
in City Hall Park, and the two brothers were 
talking together when a private came up to 
Captain Armstrong and inquired where he 
could get a drink of water. Armstrong started 
at once to get water for him, and when it was 
suggested to him by his brother that it might 
not be very good military discipline for a cap- 
tain to be running around getting water for his 
men, he repHed, "The men must have water. 
I'm bound to see that they get it." 

From New York the regiment moved south, 
traveling through Philadelphia and Balti- 
more to Harper's Ferry and thence to Martins- 
burg, Va., which they reached on September 2d. 
There camp-life began in earnest. Martins- 
burg was the most advanced point of the 
Federal lines and should have been held only by 
seasoned troops; Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson 
were known to be not far distant, so that the 
camp was in a continual state of excitement 
and the green men suffered a good deal from 
"nerves." 

They were anxious times for Armstrong. 
His duties were many and arduous, and the 



24 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

fact that he was new to them did not make 
them any easier. He relates that he did not 
only his own thinking, but the thinking for all 
his men as well; in fact, he considered that to 
be one of the duties of a captain. One night, 
while officer of the day, he ran the guard five 
times and seized six men's muskets, rendering 
them helpless. He had no sympathy with 
laxity and carelessness; he did things right 
himself and expected at least an honest effort 
from others. 

Meanwhile, as General Robert E. Lee moved 
northward, he discovered that, contrary to his 
expectation, he would be unable to feed his 
army on the provisions furnished by the 
country. It became necessary for him, there- 
fore, to open a way through to the Shenandoah 
Valley, where his base of supplies was located. 

Harper's Ferry was the sole obstacle in his 
way, and by all the rules of war it should have 
been abandoned by the Union Army, located as 
it was in a hostile country. A defense was 
planned, however, and among the troops dis- 
patched there for that task was the One 
Hundred and Twenty-fifth New York. 

To "Stonewall" Jackson had been assigned 
the task of capturing the stronghold, and how 
he did it is a well-known story. The garrison 
and reinforcements at Harper's Ferry were 



LIFE IN THE ARMY 25 

cooped up in a valley between three hills, 
Bolivar, Loudown, and Maryland Heights. No 
proper defenses for these heights had been 
prepared, and it was only a short time before 
they fell into the hands of the Confederates. 
Meanwhile, the Union forces, pinned in below 
and helpless, were an easy mark for shot, shell, 
and rifle buUets; they were badly cut to pieces, 
and being cut off as they were, there was but 
one thing left for them to do and that was to 
surrender. Thus over twelve thousand troops 
soon fell into Jackson's hands and much war 
material was taken. 

The first Confederate shell threw the Union 
camp into the wildest disorder; everything was 
in confusion; artillery, infantry, and cavalry 
stampeded for the nearest ravine in search of 
shelter. Nothing demoralizes raw troops like 
artillery; to sit calmly and be cut up by some- 
thing against which you cannot defend yourself 
is almost too much to ask of inexperienced 
soldiers. 

Armstrong, under the gaze of his men, was 
forced to be cgJm; when the first sheUs fell 
near him he did not move a muscle and in fact 
felt no fear. He confessed that later, however, 
when stationed in a much safer place he was fair 
more nervous than he had been before. He 
kept his company together, made them keep 



26 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

step, ordered three cheers for Company D, and 
then marched them down the road, which was 
crowded with flying men, artillery wagons, 
horses, and all the other accouterments of an 
army. As a result his company was about the 
only one to come away in good order, in spite 
of the fact that it occupied the most exposed 
position of all. 

Presently Armstrong found himself a pris- 
oner of war. He had only good things to say 
about the Confederates; they treated their 
prisoners civilly, did not exult over them, al- 
lowed them wide freedom of action; in fact, 
they were much like the Union troops, except 
that they were not nearly so profane. "Stone- 
wall" Jackson was dressed in an old suit of 
civilian's clothes and wore a slouch hat; the 
uniforms his men wore were ragged and dirty. 
They were fine troops, however. Before the 
battle of Manassas they had covered ninety 
miles in three days, and at the end of the 
march had immediately gone into action. 

However, the Confederates were eager to get 
rid of their prisoners captured at Harper's 
Ferry. The battle of Antietam was raging a 
few miles away, and they were not sure of their 
success. Their rations, also, were short; in 
fact, they devoured what their prisoners left 
and reported that at times they had been forced 



LIFE IN THE ARMY 27 

to content themselves for a whole day with one 
ear of corn for each man. It was decided, 
therefore, to parole their captives and send 
them north. The One Hundred and Twenty- 
fifth New York was paroled as a regiment and 
sent to Chicago with some Illinois troops. 
Their route lay by way of Annapolis, thence by 
boat to Baltimore, and from there to Chicago. 
The march to Annapolis was a hard one — 
one hundred and twenty-three miles — and 
consumed five days. Rations consisted of 
hard bread and maggoty bacon, provided by 
Jackson, and the best he had. Much dissatis- 
faction had been caused in Armstrong's regi- 
ment by the fact that they were being sent to 
Chicago instead of nearer home, and there w^as 
considerable insubordination in the ranks. 
Armstrong, as usual, made his men's comfort 
the first consideration, however, and they ap- 
preciated it; his efforts were repaid by the fact 
that his was one of the few companies that 
maintained discipline and caused no trouble. 
He reported that never did they refuse to fall 
in when so ordered, apparently a marked ex- 
ception to the behavior of some others. The 
camp at Annapolis was infested with lice and 
the journey to Chicago paiticuiarly unpleas- 
ant; Armstrong himself had only a board 
eighteen inches wide on which to sleep. 



28 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

Finally, however, they arrived at their des- 
tination and were quartered at Camp Douglas, 
near the shores of Lake Michigan, where they 
remained from September 29th until Novem- 
ber 21, 1862. A letter written by Armstrong 
from there in October of that year will describe 
a scene in camp on a Sunday evening: 

On the right wing a crowd of fellows are singing 
boisterously the "Star Spangled Banner"; on the 
center of the battaKon there is a prayer meeting; just 
to the left of my tent they are singing "Marching 
Along"; they have just sung "There Is Rest for the 
Weary." It is wonderful how these Sabbath-school 
airs have such popularity and such a control over the 
feehngs of strong men; there is nothing that the soldier 
likes so well as these simple,^weet melodies. 

In the latter part of November the regiment 
was ordered to return to Washington for fur- 
ther duty. The same desire to sing and the 
same love of the old tunes were still manifested. 
Armstrong reports that as the train left 
Chicago everyone was in high spirits, and as is 
almost always the case with soldiers, they 
showed their happiness by singing. "John 
Brown's Body" and "We ShaU Know Each 
Other Over There" seemed to be the favorites at 
that time. 

The One Hundred and Twenty-fifth New 
York arrived at Washington on November 25, 
1862, and spent the next three months in being 
shifted from one position to another. Mo-. 



LIFE IN THE ARMY 29 

mentous events took place that winter, but 
Armstrong and his men had small part in them; 
they were held as a reserve for the Army of the 
Potomac and were shunted about in conformity 
with its movements. Armstrong enjoyed the 
winter, however. He ate, slept, and spent his 
time studying tactics. He was in excellent 
physical condition, and the responsibility 
resting upon him developed his character and 
matured and strengthened him. 

He became more serious-minded, though he 
never forgot how to plan or to make fun for 
himself and others. He always got on beauti- 
fully with children, and this understanding of 
and sympathy for minds less developed than 
his own is no doubt one of the reasons why he 
had been so successful in aiding the primitive 
peoples in his native Hawaii. The "underdog" 
was always Armstrong's special pet. Abraham 
Lincoln had issued his Emancipation Procla- 
mation in that winter of 1862-1863 and it was 
to take effect on January 1, 1863. Armstrong 
was profoundly stirred by Lincoln's act; no 
doubt it had a great effect on his whole life. 
Previously he had had some doubts as to what 
he was fighting for, but now they were all dis- 
solved. "I shall know for what I am contend- 
ing," he wrote to his mother; "for freedom and 
for the oppressed. I shall then be willing to go 



30 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

into the fight and you will feel less grieved if I 
fall in such a cause. You and I will then have 
cause to congratulate ourselves that our family 
is represented in the greatest struggle of mod- 
ern times for the most sacred principles." 

How well these words apply to the part the 
United States is playing in this great world 
struggle for liberty, civiHzation, the right of 
oppressed peoples, and the principles of hu- 
manity! Armstrong might have written them 
in 1917 instead of 1862, and they would have 
been equally pertinent. If ever there was a 
just war it is the one upon which America and 
her brave allies have now embarked. There 
is no room in a Christian world for nations 
which do not respect the rights of their neigh- 
bors. 

During the month of February, 1863, Arm- 
strong and the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth 
New York were moved to Centreville, Va., 
where they remained in camp three months. 
The time passed pleasantly and quickly, and on 
June 25th the regiment was ordered to join the 
Second Army Corps under Genereil Hancock. 
Meanwhile, the battle of Chancellorsville had 
been fought, and General Lee, encouraged by 
the Confederate victory, became convinced 
that the time had come for an invasion of the 
North. He advanced into Pennsylvania, not 



LIFE IN THE ARMY 31 

only with the idea in mind of capturing one of 
the northern cities, but also of relieving the 
Confederate forces at Vicksburg, where GrEuit 
was attacking. 

The Union Army was hurried toward Gettys- 
burg and grouped to meet and contest Lee's 
advance. The Second Army Corps formed a 
pgut of this army, and at Gettysburg the One 
Hundred and Twenty-fifth New York and 
Armstrong got their first real test of battle. 
On the first day of the battle there were opposed 
to them the famous "Louisiana Tigers," and a 
hot fight ensued. Armstrong's brigade charged 
them furiously, losing many of their effectives 
but eventually carrying the objectives assigned 
to them and inflicting enormous losses on their 
opponents; the "Louisiana Tigers" were com- 
pletely shattered, losing fourteen hundred of 
their seventeen hundred men. 

It was Armstrong's first real battle. He had 
been curious to know how he would behave, and 
was pleased to find that he did not feel the fear 
he had anticipated. Men fell all about him; 
the rebel canister and grape-shot played havoc 
with his men, but he stood firm. No man got 
ahead of him. That night they camped on 
Cemetery Hill and the next day Pickett led his 
famous charge, which afforded perhaps the 
bloodiest fighting of the entire Civil War. 



32 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

The Confederates came out of the woods 
in three long lines several hundred yards apart, 
their battle-flags flying and their bayonets 
ghstening wickedly. Armstrong immediately 
ordered the picket reserves, about seventy- 
five in number, to faU in, and led them on the 
double-quick about three hundred yards down 
the Emmitsburg road to strike the enemy on 
the flank; he stationed his men behind a rail 
fence at right angles to the attacking Confed- 
erates. From this position a murderous fire 
was poured into the enemy's flank, contribut- 
ing, in large measure, to Pickett's repulse and 
the final defeat of Lee's army at Gettysburg. 
The Regimental History of the One Hundred 
and Twenty-fifth New York says that "dis- 
tinct record should go into general history of 
Captain Armstrong's brave and skilful action at 
that important point of the battle." He was 
the only survivor of five officers who partici- 
pated in that action with him. In fact, he 
did not receive a scratch of any sort during the 
battle, and, as usual, he ascribed that circum- 
stance to the fact that a good Providence 
watched over him. 

The battle of Gettysburg marked a crisis in 
Armstrong's life. He was young and until that 
time more or less untried; but the strain of 
battle, the knowledge that he had performed 



LIFE IN THE ARMY 33 

well, the hardships, and the sorrow of seeing 
many men fall who were dear to him, devel- 
oped in him strong quahties and changed him 
from a youth of great possibilities into a man 
of judgment and determination. He had 
looked death in the face and had not faltered; 
there is no finer school for the gaining of char- 
acter. 

General Lee led his defeated armies south- 
ward and the Union forces followed in pursuit. 
Armstrong recounts that for three weeks he 
never had his clothes off; he slept as he marched. 
Sometimes his meals consisted of raw salt pork 
and hard tack; sometimes less than that; but 
he grew to like the army life, even with its 
hardships and perils, its losses and disappoint- 
ments. 

In July, 1863, Armstrong was promoted to 
the rank of major and sent north on recruiting 
duty. At first the change was pleasant, but 
he soon decided that his time could be more 
profitably employed and he became restless and 
dissatisfied. Some prominent citizens of New 
York had tried to raise a regiment of negroes 
and Armstrong was to be placed in command, 
but the state authorities opposed the enlist- 
ment of colored men and the plan fell through. 
In October Armstrong rejoined his old regiment 
in Virginia, but the idea of commanding black 



34 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

troops had taken hold of him and he was not 
contented with his position. Moreover, he 
considered a major to be an extra officer, a fifth 
and unnecessary wheel, when there was a 
colonel in charge. 

The following month he took examinations 
for a colonelcy, and out of eighty-five who 
tried was one of the four who passed. Char- 
acter, determination, and education were the 
qualities desired, and Armstrong possessed all 
three. Much doubt existed as to how negroes 
would behave under fire, and in addition the 
Confederate Congress had decreed death for' 
all captured officers of negro regiments. The 
negro service was not "fashionable." Arm- 
strong had made up his mind that he wished to 
be put in charge of colored troops, however, and 
when a heutenant-coionelcy was offered him he 
eagerly accepted. He believed that the Afri- 
can race was presented with a great opportun- 
ity; if the colored troops could prove that they 
were men they would be recognized and treated 
as such. The eyes of the world were upon them ; 
honor meant freedom for their race; dishonor 
meant universal contempt. It was an experi- 
ment, but Armstrong beheved it would be suc- 
cessful, and he was right. Negro regiments in 
the service of the United States have made envi- 
able records for devotion, loyalty, and courage. 



LIFE IN THE ARMY 35 

It was hard to leave the One Hundred and 
Twenty-fifth New York, particularly his own 
Company D. At first they had hated him, 
hated him because he was strict and had no 
patience for anything unmanly and unmili- 
tary. But gradually that feeling changed; the 
men saw him endure the longest marches un- 
complgdningly; he showed a supreme contempt 
for danger and death; he never expected his 
men to go where he would not lead; and he 
never swerved from the line of his duty. He 
gained the respect of every man in the regi- 
ment; instead of hating him they grew to love 
him and he returned their affection. Often- 
times they assured him that they would "go 
to the devil" with him, and he believed them, 
and a mutual feeling of confidence grew up. 
He had made up his mind that it was his duty 
to take over his new command, however, and 
so he left his old comrades and friends. 

About the middle of December he was or- 
dered to Benedict, Md., where he took charge of 
six companies of the Ninth Regiment United 
States Colored Troops, then being organized 
with three other colored regiments at the same 
place. Benedict was a rendezvous for blockade 
runners, deserters, and other riff-raff; it was 
unhealthy and many died of measles or small- 
pox; but Armstrong was more contented than 



36 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

ever he had been before. The negroes were 
willing and remarkably quick to learn, and he 
was delighted with both his officers and 
soldiers. Before long the Ninth Regiment had 
outdistanced the Seventh Colored, which had 
been in training several weeks longer; as usual, 
Armstrong's spirit of determination and his 
will to win had been absorbed by his men and 
the whole regiment became intensely ambi- 
tious. The Ninth was soon acknowledged to 
lead the others and to have the finest camp in 
the brigade. 

On Christmas Day there was a great field- 
day. A whole ox was roasted and athletic 
contests were held; Armstrong's regiment won 
every first prize and regimental pride was im- 
mensely stimulated. A high standard of clean- 
liness and neatness was insisted upon by him 
and self-respect increased as a consequence. 
These ex-slaves were being made into men, as 
had been predicted; many a master who came 
to get a receipt for his human property was 
halted by a sentinel who a few days before had 
been his slave. 

The negroes loved to sing. Armstrong re- 
lates that at night they would gather around 
the camp-fires and for hours would sing the old 
melodies and songs of the plantation slave-life 
that they had left so recently. He did not con- 



LIFE IN THE ARMY 



37 



sider their music always melodious, but one 
evening nearly a thousand negro soldiers joined 
in a stirring chorus that called him from his 
tent to listen to its inspiring strains. He was 
much impressed by the grandeur of the song 
and never forgot it; he called it the "Negro 
Battle Hymn," and in later years at Hampton 
it was often repeated. The music and words 
follow: 

THE ENLISTED SOLDIERS 

Sung by the men of the U. S. Colored Volunteers. 




Hark! listen to the trumpeters, 

They call for volunteers; 
On Zion's bright and flow'ry mount, 

Behold the officers. 

Repkain 
They look like men, they look like men. 

They look like men of war; 
All arm'd and dress'd in uniform, 

They look like men of war. 

Their horses white, their armor bright, 
With courage bold they stand. 

Enlisting soldiers for their King, 
To march to Canaan's land. 

It sets my heart quite in a flame, 

A soldier thus to be; 
I will enlist, gird on my arms, 

And fight for liberty. 



We want no cowards in our band. 

That will their colors fly; 
We call for valiant-hearted men, 

Who're not afraid to die. 

To see our armies on parade, 

How martial they appear! 
All armed and dressed in imiform, 

They look like men of war. 

They follow their great General, 

The great Eternal Lamb, 
His garment stained in His own blood, 

King Jesus is His name. 

The trumpets sound, the armies shout, 
They drive the host of hell; 

How dreadful is our God to adore. 
The great Immanuel! 



38 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

Both armies despised the black troops in 
those days, but Armstrong found that treating 
a negro hke a soldier made him one. They 
arose to the duty required of them in admir- 
able manner. Disease carried off many of 
them, however; although they bore surgical op- 
erations with great fortitude, sickness sapped 
their pluck and they gave up easily. 

By March of the following year the regiment 
was ready for service and dispatched to Hilton 
Head, S. C. The expedition was for the pur- 
pose of reinforcing Port Royal, a post which, 
though surrounded by Confederates, had been 
in the hands of the Federal forces for over two 
years and a half. The picket line was over 
twenty miles in length, and in no place was the 
enemy far distant; as a result there were fre- 
quent small clashes but no decisive actions, and 
Colonel Armstrong was unhappy. The routine 
of camp-Kfe was irksome and he longed for a 
change; for four weary months he stayed there, 
the only result of his sojourn being increased 
confidence in his black troops. 

In August came the welcome order to return 
to Virginia. Petersburg had been in a state 
of siege since June and toward this city the 
Ninth Regiment was directed to move. Arm- 
strong was delighted. *'We are bound to glory 
with a fair wind," he wrote; "nothing but work- 



LIFE IN THE ARMY 39 

ing and fighting ahead.'* As they advanced 
they had to fight their way along, severe en- 
gagements occurring at various points. 

The following incident of the approach to 
Petersburg is described by Armstrong and 
shows the fine control which he had over his 
troops, owing to his constant care for their 
comfort: 



Next day there was a bloody assault on the enemy's 
works, which were captured, and my regiment was sent 
to occupy a portion of them. I went in under a heavy 
front-and-flank fire, got into position in the rifle-pits, 
and for fifteen minutes or more we had it hot and 
heavy. My men fell fast, but never flinched. They 
fired coolly and won great praise. I walked along the 
line three or four times, and as the work was hardly 
breast-high was much exposed. I passed many killed 
along my path, and the wounded went in numbers to 
the rear. Finally, however, the rebs flanked us on the 
left and forced us out. Standing there in Kne, we were 
harassed by an unseen foe hidden in the bushes. It 
was impossible to hold the position, and I ordered them 
to walk. They did so the whole distance, shot at by 
the unseen enemy as they went, and having to climb 
over faUen trees and go through rough ground. They 
got back, panting with fatigue, and lay down ex- 
hausted. But orders came and off we went to retake 
the rifle-pits. 

My worn-out regiment and half of another were 
ordered to do what a whole regiment had done before, 
and to take works which twice their number had failed 
to hold against the enemy. We were to attack five 
times our number, and that, too, behind strong works 
protected by timber felled in front. 

It was madness in our general; it was death to us, 
sure death — total annihilation. The order was given 
"Forward." Off we went cheerfully to our doom. 
I never felt more calm and ready for anything, but 



40 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

just as we had advanced a few yards another general 
came up and ordered us to halt and not attack. He 
saved us. He was General Terry. 

Among his men, and even among his fellow- 
officers, Armstrong was marked for his daring. 
Encamped before Petersbm-g, he placed his men 
in a sheltered ravine out of reach of the enemy's 
guns, while his own tent he pitched on a near-by- 
elevation which was exposed to the enemy's 
fire and across which the cannon balls ricocheted 
constantly. He was in hourly peril day and 
night, but he felt that his example of disregard 
for danger improved the morale of his colored 
soldiers. 

He apologized one day for having reined in 
his horse when a shell burst directly in front of 
him. He seemed to think it might be regarded 
as an act of cowardice when, as a matter of fact, 
he scarcely knew the meaning of fear. He was 
unusually strict when a question of military 
discipline was concerned, but his dusky soldiers 
looked upon him almost as a god. 

During the siege of Petersburg a truce was 
one day declared, to allow the opposing armies 
to bury their dead. Engaged in this ghastly 
work, Armstrong met two Confederate officers, 
a colonel and a general ; for two hours they tried 
to convince him that slavery was a good thing. 
When he told them, however, that he was a 



LIFE IN THE ARMY 41 

foreigner, a Sandwich Islander who had enlisted 
because he believed that war in the interest of 
four millions of oppressed souls was a struggle 
on the side of right, they respected him for his 
high principles. In all Armstrong's hfe he 
never stopped to count the cost, and it was 
typical of him that he should be willing to 
risk his life for a cause which he considered 
just. 

His responsibihties were heavy in those days. 
Unceasingly he was forced to labor to strengthen 
the positions held by his brigade, and at length 
the strain became too great for him to bear and 
he was sent to the officers' hospital near Fort- 
ress Monroe. While he was there his regiment 
was dispatched to attack Fort Gilman, one of 
the main defenses of Richmond. The fort was 
powerfully defended, and the enterprise was a 
hopeless one from the start. Grape, canister, 
and shrapnel raked the Unes, but not once did 
the negroes falter; they were cut to pieces, and 
finally, having lost one-third of their effect- 
ives, were forced to retire. The officers cursed 
the general who had ordered them to attack, 
but they were profoundly grateful that Arm- 
strong had not been present. As one man said, 
*Tf he had been there, they would all have been 
in hell or in Richmond." They never expected 
to hear the order to retreat from his lips, yet 



42 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

they knew that he never exposed or sacrificed 
his men needlessly. 

Upon his discharge from the hospital he was 
promoted to a colonelcy and placed in com- 
mand of the Eighth United States Colored 
Troops, which were stationed close to the 
borders of Richmond. It was considered the 
best colored regiment in the division and Arm- 
strong was very proud of his men ; also of the 
fact that they possessed an excellent brass 
band, the only one in the division. 

From his tent door he could see the long 
line of Confederate earthworks thrown up to 
defend the capital; even the tents were within 
plain sight. Every quarter of a mile a strong 
fort was erected in their defenses; the enemy 
cannon could have shelled his camp with ease, 
but there was little fighting at that particular 
spot. He knew that he had a splendid regi- 
ment and he considered that a great opportun- 
ity lay ahead. He longed for a chance to do or 
die, to be "distinguished or extinguished." 

Before the chance came, however, the win- 
ter dragged on and the war came to a close. 
Thankful as Armstrong was for the dawn of 
peace he felt disappointed on some accounts. 
He did not consider that the colored troops had 
done enough or been sufficiently proved. He 
was convinced of their splendid worth as sol- 




Armstrong during the Civil War. 
Brevet Brigadier-General at 26. 



LIFE IN THE ARMY 43 

diers and wished all others to feel the same way, 
for he believed that the behavior of the negroes 
in battle would be the measure by which, to a 
large degree, they would be judged as they 
started out in their new lives of freedom. 

On April 9, 1865, Lee, unable to shake the 
ever-tightening pressure of the Union forces, 
with his army suffering and underfed, and with 
convincing proof offered that eventually Rich- 
mond would fall, signed terms of surrender. 
Armstrong of course was present and describes 
the event thus: 

Appomattox Court House, Va. 
AprH 9, 1865. 

God is great! Today, by his help, the great Confed- 
erate General and his army have surrendered uncondi- 
tionally. I have just been viewing from a near emi- 
nence the captive host, the artillery, and wagon trains. 

Yesterday General Custer took all the supplies sent 
from Lynchburg to Lee's army; our army closed in 
around the rebels, and this morning they found them- 
selves surrounded and without provisions. Early we 
advanced and our skirmish lines met those of the 
enemy. Mine drove not only the rebel skirmishers, 
but also the line of battle. We expected a fight — I 
never felt more like it. I mounted my noble staUion 
and was ready to lead on at the word. A few bullets 
whistled around, a few shells passed over — the rebs 
gave way — all was quiet. There was a rumor of sur- 
render; we waited; other rumors came; and finally it 
was certain that the cruel war was over. The first 
inkhng I had of it was the continuous cheering of 
troops on our right. Soon staff officers galloped up 
with the news that Lee was making terms of sur- 
render; the firing ceased. It was impossible to realize 
that the terrible army of Lee was in existence no 
longer I The truth was stunning. 



44 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

So the great Civil War ended. Armstrong 
now received a brevet title of Brigadier-General 
of Volunteers, but although he was in service 
several months longer he never wore his brig- 
adier's stars. *'I guess I'll stick to the old 
birds," he said, referring to the colonel's eagles. 
Glory meant Uttle to him; he did his best on 
every occasion and while he was not unconscious 
of honor, he was even more satisfied with the 
knowledge of a task well done than with any 
reward he might receive. He was in the 
service of his God and of his country, and his 
sole desire was to serve them well. 



CHAPTER IV 

ON THE MEXICAN BORDER 

Mexico, also, at this time was torn by civil 
war, and the rebels were planning the over- 
throw of the Emperor Maximilian, brother of 
the late Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria. 
The United States did not care to have an 
empire set up adjoining her southern border, 
so friendly aid was offered to the republican 
insurgents, and in the confusion it was also 
deemed wise to dispatch a force to look after 
her own interests. A part of this force was 
Armstrong's regiment, the Eighth United 
States Colored Troops, and on May 30, 1865, 
they set sail for Texas. 

Armstrong enjoyed the sea trip immensely, 
as also he did the sight of various tropical 
islands which reminded him of his native 
Hawaii. He devised a novel way of keeping 
his men clean and cool on the voyage; every 
day he had them stripped a hundred at a time, 
placed in the forward part of the ship, and then 
had the hose turned on them. 

The voyage to Texas was more enjoyable 

than their experiences after their arrival. As 

they approached the entrance to the Rio 

Grande they were shipwrecked and thus the 

45 



46 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

whole expedition came very near ending in dis- 
aster. Armstrong had gone ashore to select a 
camp-site; he stood on the beach watching the 
ship bring his regiment across the sand-bar 
which skirted the harbor of Brazos Santiago. 
The surf was running high and he saw the ship 
suddenly stop and shiver from stem to stern; 
stuck fast, she lay among the breakers. The 
whole regiment vv^as on board and darkness was 
coming on. 

Armstrong never hesitated. In spite of the 
fact that he had recently broken his arm he pro- 
cured a boat, got some Italian boatmen to man 
it, and took the steering oar himself. The surf 
increased in size steadily, and at times the small 
boat became almost unmanageable ; Armstrong's 
arm was still very weak and it seemed a miracle 
that it was not broken again. He worked 
furiously, however, and after taldng off about 
four hundred men in boats, the ship was 
pounded in so close to shore that the men could 
jump off. Not a life was lost — another ex- 
ample of Armstrong's devotion to his men and 
of his complete disregard of any danger to 
himself. 

He did not enjoy the life on the border. In 
some places there was no wood to be had, and 
the water-supply was oftentimes poor; fre- 
quently they could not obtain fresh vegetables 



ON THE MEXICAN BORDER 47 

or meat, and always the life was dull. One 
night, however, Armstrong gave a dinner to the 
commander of the Liberal forces in the north 
of Mexico and his staff, which furnished great 
amusement. Armstrong expected about five 
guests; instead of that a small army arrived. 
The Americans were amazed and dumfounded. 
How could they feed a regiment? 

The funny side of the situation always ap- 
pealed to Armstrong, however, and he en- 
joyed the whole performance, particularly the 
hugging which he was obliged to do when greet- 
ing the Mexican officers. The conversation at 
dinner was also entertaining, though not very 
general, as it was limited to Spanish and the 
stock of words available was hardly more than 
a dozen. 

During his stay on the border, however, he 
got into close touch with some of the real 
things in Mfe. His experience with his soldiers 
had taught him that pohsh is not necessary to 
manliness; there are the higher qualities of 
justice and clean living and thinking. What 
he really learned is perhaps best expressed in 
his own words: 

This inner strength is the thing, and it is com- 
pleted, perfected, and made glorious by religion. 
Thus one, though poor and unnoticed, may be greater, 
grander, and far more beautiful than anything that is 
made of the costhest stone. Men are, as a rule, heathens. 



48 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

Here [in camp] it is easier to be manly, to culti- 
vate noble aspirations than in the most pious New 
England village. A greasy, dirty Mexican, fighting 
for his country, inspires me more than the whole 
faculty of a theological seminary would. Soldiering 
has sometimes set me to thinking. My few oppor- 
tunities in the army have been of far more use to me 
than the abundant measure I had before. When a 
meeting-house burns up I care very httle. Under the 
trees it is better — under the evening sky, the sun go- 
ing down in glory as we worship, is the grandest time 
and place for it. I am terribly down on two sermons 
every Sunday. The drawing-out process is the best 
and truest. Set the people to work and the ministers 
to chewing tobacco, if necessary, to make them like 
other men, not stiff and mannerish, but open, free, 
hearty, and happy. A good, hearty, healthy laugh is as 
bad for the devil as some of the long nasal prayers I 
have heard — yes, worse! 

Good people try to do too much to dodge the devil 
and to build up a weJI to keep him out. What does he 
doP He helps build the waU. Meet him squarely; 
fight the inner battle of self, and outward forms — 
moralities — wiU take care of themselves. Allow young 
people to doubt — doubt anything and everything; 
don't crush doubt, because you crush conviction too. 

Armstrong took a broad view of religion and 
life. He was probably ahead of his times in his 
ideas, for now many people agree with most of 
what he said. He criticized the ministers, and 
perhaps with some justice; there are poor min- 
isters just as there are failures in every other 
line of work, but nowadays the majority of 
them are broad-minded, human men. Arm- 
strong may have had too little sympathy with 
the forms of rehgious worship, but he was a 
sincere believer in religion. Prayer was one of 



ON THE; MEXICAN BORDER 49 

his readiest aids at all times. His religion 
was practical in its influence upon life. 

Early in October, 1865, he was sent to 
Brownsville, Tex., and after a stay of a few 
weeks there, received his discharge from the 
army. 

His mind was filled with many plans for 
future work. Openings of various kinds were 
offered to him; but at this time his thoughts 
seemed more concerned with entering into 
some work which would be of benefit to the 
wx)rld and to his fellow-men than they were of 
making money. He desired to serve the Great 
Master. He considered that his life had been 
marvelously spared and he felt that it should 
be dedicated to the cause of humanity. He 
did not desire to be a minister, but he did desire 
to minister. 



CHAPTER V 
THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU 

Up to this time Armstrong had not taken 
out his citizenship papers. A few weeks before 
he received his discharge, however, he rounded 
out his third year of service in the United 
States Army, which fact automatically made 
him a citizen by Act of Congress. The thought 
of it was tremendously inspiring to him. "A 
citizen of the Grand Republic! To be for- 
ever under the shelter of the broad pinions of 
the American eagle! To be one of the mighty 
brood of that glorious bird; to call the flag of 
my country that glorious banner that has for 
four years been wreathed in smoke and torn 
and stained in countless battles, and now finally 
and forever triumphant." 

The last italics are not Armstrong's, but the 
words are emphasized to show how accurate a 
prophet he has thus far shown himself to be. 
Certainly no country need ever fear subjection 
if its armies are made up of brave, honorable, 
and Christian soldiers like Samuel Chapman 
Armstrong. Remember his motto: "To put 
God and country first, ourselves afterward." 

After his discharge Armstrong made his way 
to New York, and later on, at the close of the 
50 



THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU 51 

winter, he went to Washington, with the idea of 
applying for a position with the government; 
but apparently politics were much the same in 
those days as they are now, for what he saw 
disgusted him and he abandoned his plan. 

The Freedmen's Bureau had just come into 
being as a result of the pressing need of caring 
for the thousands of negroes set adrift at the 
close of the war. It had been made a depart- 
ment of Government by Act of Congress in 
1865, and put under the leadership of General 
0. 0. Howard as commissioner. To him, there- 
fore, Armstrong applied for a position. 

People everywhere were asking what should 
be done with the negro. How could he be made 
to take care of himself? How could he be 
aided without making him an object of char- 
ity.^ The Freedmen's Bureau was designed 
to answer these questions. It had three de- 
partments, economic, charitable, and educa- 
tional; and it was well organized, with an 
elaborate system of reports from the sub- 
ordinates all the way up to the commissioner 
himself. 

When Armstrong applied there were no 
vacancies, but later a chance for work on the 
Virginia peninsula was offered him. A large 
number of unruly negroes were there whom no 
one had been able to manage, and General 



52 A LEADER OF FREEMEINT 

Howard thought that perhaps Armstrong was 
the man to do it. So he became agent mider 
the Freedmen's Bureau and had control over 
ten counties in Virginia; he was also appointed 
superintendent of schools in this large, loosely 
defined area. As agent he was one of eight 
men who had control, in great measure, over 
the fortunes of the negroes in the state of 
Virginia. And he was only twenty-eight years 
old. 

In March, 1866, he arrived at Fortress Mon- 
roe and journeyed a few miles to his post at 
the village of Hampton. Hampton is beauti- 
fuEy situated near the mouth of the James 
River, and not far away is the site of James- 
town, famous for its historic associations. 
Hampton had once been a fine town, but fire 
had destroyed it several years before Arm- 
strong's arrival, and only ruins remained to 
mark the site of former homes. Negroes had 
flocked to that district, and seven thousand 
of them lived, or rather existed, within a radius 
of three miles from the spot where Armstrong's 
office was located. 

Within sight of the village of Hampton was a 
sheet of water, the scene of the history-making 
fight between the Monitor and the Merrimac, 
which revolutionized naval warfare; it had 
been the naval rendezvous of the war and twice 



THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU 53 

the base of operations of the Army of the 
Potomac. 

The work which confronted Armstrong was 
hard. There was constant irritation and some- 
times friction between the negroes and the 
whites. Martial law prevailed at first, and 
not only great energy and ability were re- 
quired, but tact as well. The ration question 
was a difficult one to settle ; some two thousand 
of the colored population had been fed freely 
for years, and as a result they now naturally 
were demoralized and seemingly helpless. 
When the order was issued that at the expira- 
tion of three months all rations would stop, 
trouble was feared, but happily none developed. 
In a tight place a negro is usually able to care 
for himself very well indeed. 

In spite of his troubles, hardships, and dis- 
couragements Armstrong (everyone now called 
him General Armstrong) was happy. *'The 
work is splendid," he wrote, "and if God leads 
me as he has done, I shall have nothing to fear. 
AU will be weU." 

He had not been at Hampton very long be- 
fore plans for the industrial education of the 
negroes began to take shape in his mind. He 
sent an appeal to many people living around 
Boston to take negroes and find them work to 
do in that section of the country; he recom- 



54 A LEADER 0F„ FREEMEN 

mended women for housework and men and 
boys for outdoor labor. As a result of a cir- 
cular letter he sent out, nearly a thousand 
negroes were soon actually placed in homes near 
Cambridge and Boston. 

He also recommended that teachers should 
be sent to him for positions in the negro schools 
near Hampton. Young women were wanted 
particularly to instruct their dusky-skinned 
sisters in the art of sewing and making their 
own clothes. Three hundred dollars were re- 
quired for the annual support of each of these 
teachers, but Armstrong's appeal met with a 
very generous response. 

There were others beside Armstrong, among 
the men who came in close contact with the 
negroes, who realized that their greatest needs 
were common morality, industry, and fore- 
sight, and that to promote these was at that 
time far more important than to give charity or 
even to teach them to read and write. As he 
said, "The North generally thinks that the great 
thing is to free the negro from his former owners; 
the leal thing is to save him from himself." 

It was characteristic of Armstrong that he 
should grasp the fundamentals of what was 
needed. He had remarkably clear insight into 
every question; he did not bother with non- 
essentials, but at once went to the root of 



.THE FREEDRIEN'S BUREAU 55 

things. He was habitually thorough in every 
task. In spite of his other activities he did 
yeoman work with the Freedmen's Bureau 
until it was closed in 1872, and what he did was 
lasting. On everyone with whom he came into 
contact he left his impress; his honesty, sin- 
cerity, uprightness, his Christianity and un- 
bounded faith and optimism could not fail to 
have their effect. And with it all he was blessed 
with an unbounded capacity for fun; he was 
human in every way and people who knew him 
loved and respected him. 

During the war he was loved by his men be- 
cause he was uniformly fair to all and was not 
afraid to do himself anything which might be 
required of them. He was a good soldier in 
war and he was a good soldier in peace-times 
too. The same manly. Christian qualities 
which earned him his rank of general also earned 
him honors in his civilian pursuits. He could 
work just as hard as he could fight, and higher 
praise cannot be given him. 

His work with the Freedmen's Bureau prob- 
ably developed his character more than any 
other period of Armstrong's hfe, possibly even 
more than the years that he passed in the 
army. He emerged from the task a man, full- 
grown morally and mentally, sobered and 
settled. The work constantly suggested to 



56 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

him, however, the need of an educational insti- 
tution for the negroes, adapted especially to 
the needs of the ex-slaves, and different from 
anything he had ever found or known. From 
the time when he had first been placed in com- 
mand of colored troops he had had dreams of 
such an institution. 

Hampton was an ideal situation for the loca- 
tion of just such a school. Geographically it 
seemed perfect; it was easily accessible by rail- 
road; a population of two million negroes could 
be drawn upon; and the climate was healthy. 

He laid his plans carefully and in the early 
part of 1867 wrote to the American Missionary 
Association, suggesting Hampton as a spot for a 
"permanent and great educational work," and 
recommending that an estate of one hundred 
£md fifty-nine acres, fronting on the Hampton 
River, be purchased. The Association agreed 
promptly and cheerfully, and furthermore re-, 
quested Armstrong to become the head of the 
proposed school. He had had no idea of such 
a turn of events, but accepted the ceJI at once. 
Till then his future had been blind; it had been 
clear to him that there was a work to be done 
for the ex-slave and he felt that he knew how to 
do it. Now he was convinced that his work in 
life was appointed and he set out with his char- 
acteristic energy to make his task a success. . 



CHAPTER VI 
FOUNDING HAMPTON INSTITUTE 

There was a constantly growing demand in 
Virginia and other parts of the South for young 
colored teachers, able and equipped to instruct 
their own race. General Armstrong realized 
this need and set about supplying the public 
schools with teachers who should not only lead 
their people toward better habits of thought, 
but should teach them better moral and phys- 
ical habits as well. He believed that the ne- 
groes should be taught to become self-reliant 
and independent; to realize that labor is not 
disgraceful; and through hard work to keep out 
of mischief. He believed that the pupils he 
sent out should earn their education as far as 
possible through their own efforts, and that they 
should be trained to support themselves after 
graduation by the work of their hands as well 
as by their brains; in this way they could pro- 
vide an example of industry for their own 
people. Mental and manual training were to 
be combined. These were the methods he 
planned to follow and the results he hoped to 
accomplish at Hampton. 

He expressed his aims as follows: To train 
selected negro youths who should go out and 
57 



58 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

teach and lead their people, first by example, 
by getting land and homes; to give them not a 
dollar that they could earn for themselves; to 
teach respect for labor; to replace stupid drudg- 
ery with skilled hands; and to those ends to 
build up an industrial system for the sake not 
only of self-support and intelligent labor, but 
also for the sake of character. 

The school at Hampton was of necessity 
forced to depend, to a large extent, upon volun- 
tary subscriptions and at the start Armstrong 
met with much opposition. Many institutions 
had tried the plan of combining mental and 
manual training, but with poor results, and one 
by one they had given up the experiment. 
Armstrong was not the man to let opposition 
discourage him, however, and he kept on with 
his plans, working them out and perfecting 
them. Through the aid of various individuals 
and societies he was enabled to complete pay- 
ment for the land he had had in mind for a site; 
and a long, low, one-story building was built, 
the material being furnished from some old 
hospital barracks formerly located on the spot. 
Armstrong had planned the whole school in his 
mind — the location of every building and its 
style. Curiously enough, his ideas were al- 
ways found to be the best offered, and as the 
school grew and new structures were added 



FOUNDING HAMPTON INSTITUTE 59 

from time to time, it took shape just as he had 
pictured it. 

On April 1, 1868, Hampton was opened with 
an attendance of fifteen pupils, and a teacher 
and a matron. Before the month ended the 
number of pupils was doubled. Manual work 
in the morning and study in the sifternoon and 
evening made the daily program. The boys 
worked on the farm, the girls at housework; 
they were formed into squads, one squad work- 
ing two days in the week and studying the 
other four; they were paid for their work, not 
in cash, but in credit on the books of the 
school. Armstrong hoped in this way to com- 
bine labor and study so that both could be 
carried on without interfering with each other. 
How successful he was the growth and reputa- 
tion of Hampton bear witness. 

He established a vegetable farm and, like 
everything else that he did, made it a success. 
He searched far and wide before he found the 
man he wished to take charge of it as superin- 
tendent, for good men then as now were scarce. 
"I only now begin to comprehend the difficulty 
of getting the right men for this work," he 
wrote. "I see why most institutions and 
enterprises fail. There are lots of men, but few 
who are good for anything. Many men can 
talk, can shine; few can do things." 



60 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

The final step in the founding of Hampton 
was accomplished by an act passed by the 
General Assembly of Virginia June 4, 1870, in- 
corporating the "Hampton Normal and Agri- 
cultural Institute, for the instruction of youth 
in the various common school, academic, and 
industrial branches, the best methods of teach- 
ing the same, and the best mode of practical 
industry in its application to agriculture and 
the mechanic arts." 

Meanwhile in October of the preceding year 
Armstrong had been married to Miss Emma 
Dean Walker of Stockbridge, Mass. Having 
acquired a home and a family, Armstrong 
thought for a time of going into some more 
lucrative work; he nearly decided to run for 
Congress, but finally concluded that his place 
was at Hampton and threw himself into the 
work there with characteristic energy and devo- 
tion. His life he dedicated to the school. 

Most of his students came to him ignorant of 
the care of body and mind, and with but little 
understanding of the real teachings of Christ. 
Even though they were regular church-goers and 
practised the outward forms of Christianity, 
few believed in them and they had no confi- 
dence in themselves. What they needed was 
self-respect, and Armstrong appointed himself 
to supply that missing quality. "Many people 



FOUNDING HAMPTON INSTITUTE 61 

are good, but good for nothing," he said, and 
that apparently applied to many of his pupils 
when they first arrived at Hampton. He 
believed in working together, however, and 
coming in contact with his strong, forceful, 
Christian character was of great value to these 
ignorant negroes and Indians — for Indians, 
also, were taken at the school some ten years 
after its founding; they, too, acquired self- 
respect and confidence in themselves merely 
through association with him. 

All kinds of difficulties beset Armstrong in 
his work. His Kfe was a ceaseless struggle with 
one hardship and discouragement after an- 
other; but he met them all and conquered them 
every one. His attitude toward work is shown 
by the following little story which he loved to 
teU: "Once there was a woodchuck. Now, 
woodchucks can't climb trees. Well, this 
woodchuck was chased by a dog and came to a 
tree. He knew that if he could get up that tree 
the dog could not catch him. Now, wood- 
chucks can't cHmb trees, but he had to, so he 
did!" 

General Armstrong met his pupils often, 
both in pubhc and in private. If anyone had a 
grievance or was dissatisfied with his work or 
surroundings, he had but to see "the General" 
and lay his case before him. He knew how to 



62 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

be severe and had no patience with lying or 
laziness; he often said that there was no place 
in this world or the next for lazy men. No 
pupil ever left his presence without feeling that 
he had been fairly treated, however. Arm- 
strong realized that they were all human and 
therefore by no means perfect, yet he felt just 
as strongly that they were all susceptible of 
improvement. 

He copied his old teacher, Mark Hopkins, in 
his classroom methods, and like Doctor Hop- 
kins believed that no recitation was complete 
without at least one good laugh. His soldierly 
manner and stern eye made him feared by 
some of the more timid or those who were not 
familiar with him; but his patience and sym- 
pathy sooner or later convinced all his pupils 
that he was to be loved rather than feared. 

He believed that a man should find out 
what he could do well and stick to it, no matter 
what it was. Everyone could do something, 
no matter if it was only to black boots, and he 
insisted that if a man apparently could do 
nothing, it was simply because he was lazy, 
and "God didn't make the world for lazy 
people." 

He gave many Uttle impromptu talks to his 
classes. Many of these talks bore a deep 
religious impress, and numbers of young men 



FOUNDING HAMPTON INSTITUTE 63 

and women date from them their first impulse 
toward a true Christian life. No pupil who 
heard these talks failed to realize the impor- 
tance in the general scheme of things of his own 
petty routine work. Like a private in the 
ranks, his work might sometimes seem dull, 
but where would the army be without privates? 
So Armstrong showed his listeners their part 
in the system, and as a consequence they 
gained self-respect and confidence in their own 
efforts. 

As a result of his teachings and efforts, a 
deep and intense religious feeling grew up in 
the school and consequently the school-work 
was done more cheerfully and better than ever. 
Daily prayer-meetings were held and it was 
most impressive to hear a few words of prayer 
or a tale of Christian experience from a negro 
who a few months before had been living in 
poverty and ignorance, or from an Indian who 
had roamed the plains half-wild. 

A perennial love of fun illuminated Arm- 
strong's life. He played as hard as he worked 
and his home at Hampton was the scene of 
many a boisterous game. When a gray-haired 
man he was never too old to play tag with his 
youngsters, or to gather a party in his home 
for a "Presbyterian war-dance." He liked to 
tell his children, when an organ-grinder went by, 



64 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

that the monkey was the real boss and hired 
the organ-grinder by the month to carry him 
around and play for him. To prove the truth 
of his statement he called their attention to the 
fact that the organ-grinder had to walk in all 
the dust and heat, carrying the monkey, who 
sat at ease and handsomely dressed on the top 
of the organ. 

Armstrong was intense in everything that he 
did. He could play well and he could work 
hard. To help solve the negro problem was the 
dearest wish of his heart, and he had definite 
ideas as to how it should be done. He knew he 
was dealing with a race that had little necessity 
to work in their native land before coming to 
America, and that after coming to this country 
they had been forced to labor for two hundred 
and fifty years under circumstances that had 
not made them particularly fond of hard work. 
It was therefore his object to teach the negroes 
that labor could be lifted out of drudgery by 
putting thought and skill into it; he wanted to 
give them an idea of the dignity and civilizing 
power of working with the hands ; he saw that 
through the medium of industrial education he 
could bring the two races in the South into 
closer relations with each other; through the 
industrial system at Hampton he wished to give 
the students an opportunity to work out a 



FOUNDING HAMPTON INSTITUTE 65 

portion of their expenses, and so produce 
students who could help themselves and be- 
come independent. 

He saw that habits of labor constituted the 
great and only conceivable moral force that 
would lift the average negro from an attitude of 
carelessness and laziness into one of real effort 
and industry. He remembered how he had 
chopped wood and milked the cows in his boy- 
hood; how his parents had spent their youth in 
hard work; and he realized that it is only by 
hard work that character is formed. 

Applying this same doctrine to the Indian, 
Armstrong emphasized his opinion that the 
Indian question would never be settled until 
the red men were made to blister their hands. 
He insisted that no race ever emerged from 
barbarism except through hard labor. The 
Indians had been brought up with the idea that 
physical labor was a disgrace, but their con- 
ception changed at Hampton. They were first 
admitted to the school in 1878, and their coming 
brought the school more sympathy and interest 
throughout the South. Southerners who would 
not have anything to do with negroes were only 
too glad to assist the Indians. 

And Armstrong needed help for his school. 
Nearly two-thirds of his time was spent away 
from Hampton in an endeavor to raise money. 



66 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

His active brain was ceaselessly evolving plans 
which called for more funds than were avail- 
able, so money-raising tours had constantly 
to be taken. He met opposition and lack of 
interest in his schemes, but he never faltered. 
People with money are always besieged with 
appeals for various charities, and in the early 
days of Hampton, not long after the Civil War, 
the demands were particularly heavy. His 
vigor, enthusiasm, confidence, and his very 
apparent Christian character usually won out 
for him, however, and Armstrong was not the 
man to let a thing drop when once he had taken 
hold. As a consequence, he received strong 
financial backing and social and moral support 
as well. 

Armstrong's greatest effort to enlist public 
interest in Hampton and to raise money was 
the tour of the Hampton Jubilee Singers, begin- 
ning in February, 1872, and lasting until June, 
1875. The primary occasion for their tour was 
the need for better accommodations for girls, 
but General Armstrong also desired to obtain a 
permanent endowment fund for the school. 
The singers started with the hope of raising 
two hundred thousand dollars for this purpose. 

The party traveled by day, taking their 
schoolbooks with them and studying as they 
journeyed. Their concerts were held in the 



FOUNDING HAMPTON INSTITUTE 67 

evenings and in all nearly five hundred were 
given during their tour. The project did not 
attain the financial success that had been 
hoped for, however. The sum raised fell far 
short of the figure set, but a large amount of 
advertising was given the school and interest 
was aroused, so that the results of the tour, 
though largely indirect, were considerable. 

The young colored singers sang the old plan- 
tation melodies, the songs of slavery. It was 
music which was fast dying out and seemed to 
Armstrong an echo of old times. It was full of 
wailing tenderness and passionate faith, and 
in Armstrong's opinion excelled anything else 
ever composed. Those who have heard the 
darkies in the South or in the West Indies sing 
their native songs can readily understand his 
strong feeling in the matter. 

Armstrong, meanwhile, was becoming a 
celebrity. His reputation was spreading 
throughout the land, and the success he was 
achieving at Hampton claimed the admiration 
and approval of his fast-widening circle of 
friends. He paid the price for publicity which 
most public men must pay, however, for he had 
to sacrifice his home-life and was continually 
away from his family. This situation was all 
the more painful to him, for his wife had never 
been robust, and gradually her health failed 



68 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

completely. She died in 1878, leaving him a 
widower with two little daughters, six and 
eight years of age. 

To console himself Armstrong threw himself 
into his work with renewed vigor. He labored 
without ceasing for Hampton and of course 
produced results. In 1878 there were three 
hundred students in the school; eight years 
later the number had increased to six hundred 
and seventy-eight. During twelve years, from 
1878 to 1890, eighteen large buildings were 
erected, at a cost of $423,000. Roughly, a 
half-million dollars were spent on equipment, 
and another half-million had to be spent for 
running expenses during that period. Some 
years the bare expenses mounted as high as 
$80,000. And Armstrong was the man who 
had to raise all this money. 

He believed heart and soul in his work, how- 
ever, and through his faith in God also ac- 
quired faith in the success of his appeal. "I 
must win," he said. "I cannot but see that 
many put faith in me; it would be wrong to 
humanity to fail, and the way is clear. God 
has not darkened the way, but his hand points 
to a steep and craggy height; — it must be 
climbed and I will climb it." And he did. 
But he traveled thousands of miles and made 
countless speeches in the effort. 





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General Armstrong in Later Life. 



FOUNDING HAMPTON INSTITUTE 69 

His companion for twelve years was the 
Reverend HoUis Burke Frissell, the head of 
Hampton Institute from the time of GenereJ 
Armstrong's death until his own death in 
August, 1917. A splendid Christian gentle- 
man was Doctor Frissell, whose life was dedi- 
cated to Hampton and to work among the 
negroes as truly as that of his predecessor had 
been. 

Armstrong usually took four negroes and two 
Indians with him on his money-raising cam- 
paigns. The negro quartet sang and the 
Indians were a drawing-card for those anxious 
to see a real, live red man. The negroes and the 
Indians he considered as representatives of tens 
of thousands of others of their races, who only 
needed a fair chance to become good citizens. 

"Give us a chance to make men and women 
of ourselves," was the way Armstrong expressed 
their appeal, and so intense and earnest was he 
in presenting their case that seldom did he fail 
of a response. 

Armstrong did not like to beg any more than 
do most people. "I always feel as if I was 
sticking my head in the lion's mouth when I 
ask for money," he said. "But it has never 
been bitten off yet. ' ' Moreover, he had to have 
money and the one way to get it was to ask for 
it. To wish for it merely would do no good; 



70 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

people are fortunate if they get what they ask 
for in this world. One of Armstrong's favorite 
mottoes was a saying of his old colonel in the 
One Hundred and Twenty-fifth New York: 
"Captain, when you want anything and can't 
get it, raise the devil." 

For many people an obstacle is something in 
the way to stop going on, but for General 
Armstrong it merely meant something to climb 
over. As he grew older he craved the stimulus 
and excitement of constant work and activity, 
and even a few days of inactivity made him 
impatient. 

This restless manner of life finally produced 
its physical effect, however, and he became 
troubled with sleeplessness and dyspepsia. 
But his courage and optimism did not forsake 
him, a tribute to the clean life he had always 
led. He tried to take care of himself, but when 
the welfare of the negro or the Indian was at 
stake, instantly he forgot his own troubles 
completely. 

His restless spirit urged him on at all times. 
One of his friends said that when Armstrong 
came into the room it was as if a wind of 
strength and healing was blowing. He never 
forgot how to enjoy himself and he hated long 
faces. Once at a convention he said to a 
friend, "Just a minute, till I have disposed of 



FOUNDING HAMPTON INSTITUTE 71 

these missionaries, and then we will go out and 
flop." By "flopping" he meant to lie on his 
back beside some brook and watch the clouds 
float by; now and then his dreams would be 
interrupted by some funny story or incident. 

He looked upon education in the broadest 
possible light. He believed a good teacher 
was worth far more than surroundings or any 
particular method or course of study. He be- 
lieved every person should follow his own bent, 
and he considered it selfish for parents to keep 
their children at home when it seemed as if 
they might do better away from it. 

How he regarded honors is illustrated by a 
speech which he made at Harvard University 
upon receiving the degree of Doctor of Laws 
from that institution in 1889. He said that he 
knew his mother would take more pleasure in 
the honor than he did. His mother was con- 
stantly in his mind and heart and he wrote to 
her faithfully, always making a confidante of her 
and sharing his joys and sorrows with her. Her 
early training of him and her Christian example 
of uprightness and unselfishness were two of 
the greatest assets he possessed. 

His mother's life was hard, and so was his. 
But he believed in hard knocks. He consid- 
ered that the difliculties encountered by the 
negroes had pushed them farther ahead than 



72 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

anything else. The negroes could not stand 
idleness or indulgence; they could not afford to 
have their path made too easy. "Develop- 
ment under difficulties" seemed to be their law 
of progress. He knew the negro character 
better than almost any white man did, and his 
knowledge was gained from conversation and 
contact with hundreds of negroes all through 
the South. The result of his examination and 
study of their natures was that he beheved in 
them and credited them with great possi- 
bilities. 

Much agitation had been aroused over the 
question of the negroes' political standing and 
their right to vote. Armstrong believed, how- 
ever, that their problem was not political but 
social, and it was one of his purposes at Hamp- 
ton to teach his pupils how to live and mix with 
their fellow-beings. 

He was convinced that the negro could help 
himself to a large extent, while the Indian had 
to be supported. Hampton was well suited as 
a school for Indians: there was a good tone 
there, created by the loyal and industrious 
negro students. On their native heath the 
Indians had considered it a disgrace to work; 
at Hampton it was a disgrace not to work. 
Armstrong thought that the negro had had too 
much work and the Indian too little ; of the two, 



FOUNDING HAMPTON INSTITUTE 73 

however, the negro was better off, for it had 
made him strong while the Indian was becom- 
ing weaker and more dependent. 

The Government's poKcy of giving land to the 
Indian he believed to be absolutely wrong. If 
a man is presented with the alternative of work 
or starvation he will work. Such an alternative 
did not exist for the Indian. Armstrong often 
said that the only things between his children 
and want were his two hands, and he was glad 
that it was so. 

He labored well for the Indians at Hampton, 
however. There they could not help but learn 
habits of industry and were taught in everyway 
to be better men and women. Their contact 
with Armstrong alone was a liberal education in 
itself. He felt that while perhaps he could not 
make perfect citizens out of the young people 
at his school, if they would go back to their 
tribes and spread a Httle of the knowledge they 
had gained, his efforts would not be in vain. 



CHAPTER VII 
HIS WORK IS DONE 

In the fall of 1890 Armstrong married again. 
This time his bride was Miss Mary Ahce Ford, 
of Lisbon, N. H., who for some years had been a 
teacher at Hampton. This event opened to 
him once more the opportunity for a real 
home-life, but it was not to be for long. 

The following summer he took his family on a 
trip to Hawaii, to visit once again the scenes of 
his boyhood, to make a speech at the fiftieth 
anniversary of his old school, and to say good- 
bye to his mother, now eighty-seven years old. 
His trip was one of pleasure from start to finish 
and he returned to his work brightened and 
refreshed. 

His physical improvement was but temporary, 
however, and a peculiar fatigue began to creep 
over him, accompanied, strangely enough, by 
a corresponding mental stimulation. On No- 
vember 27, 1891, while he was speaking at 
Stoneham, Mass., he suffered a stroke of 
paralysis. 

Nevertheless, he determined to get well; 

announced that what had befallen him was for 

the best, as everything always was; and worked 

as vigorously to gain strength as he had worked 

74 



HIS WORK IS DONE 75 

to build up Hampton. He gradually grew able 
to pull himself upstairs, and was wheeled around 
the grounds as rapidly as he could persuade 
his negro attendant to push him. 

His figure, covered with a black coat and 
with a slouch hat pulled over his eyes, became a 
familiar one among the workshops at Hamp- 
ton. Here he would sit in his invalid's chair 
through many a sunny morning, cheerfully 
conversing with the students at their tasks. 
Part of the day he spent at his office, going over 
correspondence and fighting continually to 
stave off his physical weakness, not because he 
feared death, but because he was afraid the 
end would come before he had had time to 
finish the task he had appointed for himself. 

In the main, however, he had realized his 
ideals. He had brought about a recognition 
of the necessity of industrial training for the 
negro and the Indian; and Hampton had been 
put upon a foundation which would enable it 
to go on with its work. It did not have a large 
endowment fund, but it had a splendid repu- 
tation and a large circle of friends. For these 
objects Armstrong had striven hard and un- 
ceasingly for over twenty years. 

For a year and a half after his first stroke of 
paralysis he struggled against his ever-increas- 
ing physical infirmities. After a lapse of over 



76 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

a year he once again took up his routine work 
at Hampton, but the strain was too great for 
him and he was forced to go South for his health, 
though the change benefited him but shghtly. 

His body was broken, but his spirit re- 
mained unconquerable. Prior to the great 
naval review of the fleets of all nations in 1893 
the ships gathered at Newport News; Arm- 
strong had planned excursions and sailing 
parties among the boats for the students. 
The night before the fleets left the harbor he 
chartered two smaU boats and made a tour of 
the fleets; they stopped before each huge fight- 
ing ship and Armstrong and his party sang the 
appropriate national anthem. The serenaders 
were greeted everywhere with cheers and 
thanks. Armstrong could but sit quietly and 
gaze upon the scene, while his stiU youthful 
spirit urged him to lead the singing and the 
cheers. 

The foUowing day the fleets went out, and 
Armstrong, in spite of protests, insisted upon 
chmbing the steps to the top of a hghthouse, 
from which vantage-point he could see the 
great ships pass Fortress Monroe and hear the 
salutes of the guns. The effort was too much 
for him, however, and that evening he was 
stricken with symptoms which could only 
mean that the end was at hand. 



HIS WORK IS DONE 77 

General Armstrong realized that death was 
near and he was ready. "My work is done. I 
must go," he said. "No man ever realized his 
ideals more fully than I have." Often he 
quoted the words of "Stonewall" Jackson, v/ho, 
as he lay dying, exclaimed: "Let us cross over 
the river and rest in the shade of the trees!" 

Like most strong men, when he knew that 
the end was unavoidable, he wished it to come 
quickly. He prayed that it should be so. In 
fact, prayer was one of the things on which 
Armstrong had always relied; even in his 
busiest days he is said to have spent one-tenth 
of his time in prayer. He did not expect that 
everything he prayed for would be given him, 
for, to quote his own words, that would be 
"absurd." He believed that God would give 
his heavenly gifts to those who asked aright, 
but in his own good time and in a way that 
perhaps would not be recognized at once. 

He used common sense about prayer and the 
Bible, too. Common sense made Armstrong a 
good soldier, a wonderful organizer, a keen 
sympathizer with human nature, and a splendid 
Christian. Most men who have gone very far 
in serving this world have been Christians; it 
would be interesting to take the names of men 
successful in all Lines of endeavor and see how 
many of them were, and are, active workers in 



78 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

the church and men believing strongly in 
prayer. Possibly the result would be a surprise 
to many people; the foundation and supports of 
character are fully as important as they are in 
any great building. 

Armstrong longed for rest. He believed, 
however, that man was not made to rest, but to 
act, and he looked upon Paradise not as a rest- 
ing-place, but as a place where there is no 
fatigue. When he got there he expected to keep 
on working. "We must keep at it forever," 
he wrote. "The world moves above and be- 
low." Certainly he had spent a busy life, 
and he realized that it is only through work and 
effort that the deepest satisfaction comes. 
There is no feeling to be compared with that of 
the man who achieves his goal and knows that 
he has earned it. 

On May 11, 1893, an answer came to Arm- 
strong's prayers, and his suffering body was 
reheved of its pain. A military funeral was 
held and the bm^ial took place in the school 
cemetery at Hampton, where already several 
of the students had been buried. 

"I wish to be buried in the school graveyard, 
among the students, vfhere one of them would 
have been put had he died next," wrote Arm- 
strong some three years before his death. "I 
wish no monument or fuss whatever over my 



HIS WORK IS DONE 79 

grave; only a simple headstone — no text or 
sentiment inscribed, only my name and date. 
I wish the simplest funeral service, without 
sermon or attempt at oratory— a soldier's 
funeral." 

His desires were respected in every detail. 
His grave at one end is marked by a block of 
granite from Williamstov/n and at the other by 
a block of Hawaiian volcano rock. 

So ended the life but not the work of Samuel 
Chapman Armstrong, It has been given to 
few men to accomplish such results as he 
achieved, and though his body is no more, his 
spirit lives on, still permeating and enriching 
the work he began. Abraham Lincoln freed 
the slaves and Samuel Armstrong taught them 
how to use their freedom. He made men out 
of what was oftentimes very poor material, 
and he cultivated a Christian spirit in many a 
breast that seemed barren ground for such seed. 

His life was dominated by two ideals — God 
and country. His way of expressing these 
ideals was by work. Work he believed to be 
the salvation of us all — ^not work for ourselves, 
but for others. And Armstrong could say 
what he believed, for he lived up to his words. 
He fought for what he believed. In the Civil 
War he battled for the oppressed negro race; 
when the Civil War was over he continued the 



80 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

battle for them, and the struggle was harder 
and longer than ever. For nearly thirty years 
he labored and his labors were not in vain. 

When the end came it could be said of Samuel 
Chapman Armstrong that his life had been well 
worth while. He had never considered himself 
first and, as always happens, was the happier 
as a result. His hfe was clean and he never 
feared to do the right thing. Any man who 
through his own merit is made a brigadier- 
general at twenty-six must be a good soldier. 
Any man who gives thirty years of his life to the 
service of an inferior race is equally a good 
soldier. Armstrong risked his life in battle and 
gave it in the service of mankind. Ever faith- 
ful to his country he was eJso a true soldier of 
the Cross. 



CHAPTER VIII 

HOW OTHERS SAW HIM 

Several letters from men who knew Arm- 
strong well in college give an interesting pic- 
ture of him as a young man, as well as some 
appreciation of his career. 

The Secretary of his college class at Williams 
writes: 

The chief impression that the General made upon 
his classmates in college was produced, in the opinion 
of many of us, by his overflowing vitality — physical 
largely, but not in the least lacking in mentality and 
spirituality. The first time I ever heard of him was 
from Denison, who said one afternoon, "You must 
come over and see my new chum." "Who is heP" 
was asked. "A savage," was the answer, "a genuine 
savage, fresh from the Sandwich Islands — ^just caught. 
You ought to see him knock me down when I try to 
box with him; but he's intensely interesting." 

One can well doubt whether any man with less 
vitality than Armstrong could have literally mesmer- 
ized mental and spiritual life into that first invoice of 
ex-slaves that came to Hampton; or done the same 
with the merchants of New York and Boston when 
he went around the country, carrying on his over- 
burdened head and shoulders that ideal institute 
which he made them all think that they could see. 

That for which Armstrong's fife stands is complete 
devotion to a high and unselfish ideal, irrespective of 
any merely self-centered or material consideration. 
"I'm sorry for Armstrong," said one of our class- 
mates, a few years after the Institute had been started. 
"I'm very sorry for Armstrong. If he had stayed in 
the Freedmen's Bureau he might have risen to a high 
government position, but now he's thrown up all his 

81 



82 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

chances and gone down there to teach in a small, in- 
significant darky school." This is the way the begin- 
ning of his story appeared to one of the shrewdest of 
our own classmates. But how about its end? Of this 
you may read in the Encyclopedia Britarmica, and 
there, or in some book hke it,^the story is likely to stay 
tiU the end of time. 

At the request of President Garfield, of 
Williams, the foUowing was written by ex- 
President Carter, a classmate of General 
Armstrong. It was sent to Oahu College, 
Honolulu, where Armstrong began his academic 
career, for the occasion of the unveiling to his 
honor of a bas-relief of him in bronze, the work 
of an English artist, A. Bertram Pegram — a 
replica of one in marble which is at Hampton 
Institute. 

Bom of missionary parents, among the people 
to whose elevation these parents had devoted their 
lives, the great qualities which were made manifest 
in his career in the service of his country had their 
germs in the Sandwich Islands. Oahu College helped 
to quicken and develop these germs. WiUiams Col- 
lege, counting no other name on the long roll of 
her graduates as more illustrious than his; none as 
surpassing his in heroic valor in the material field; 
none more luminous of spotless honor; none as sig- 
nifying more heroic and loving devotion to the neg- 
lected and down-trodden; none as studying with more 
statesmanlike sagacity the problems which the emanci- 
pation of the slaves made urgent; none as pointing 
with anything like his keenness of perception and 
energy of action the only way to the transformation 
of the feeble instincts of the freedmen into the organic 
powers of citizens — ^WilMams College, supremely honor- 
ing him, sends out across the continent and the Pacific 



HOW OTHERS SAW HIM 83 

waves to Oahu College on this glad day loving greet- 
ings and hearty congratulations that Oahu College 
had her share in the training of this great soldier, mis- 
sionary, statesman, teacher, and now sets his name in 
enduring form upon her wails. 

May this name in both the colleges in all the com- 
ing years be the inspiration of many noble youth, and 
may the great work which he inaugurated yet issue in 
the hearty co-operation of whites and blacks. North 
and South; in purifying and ennobling American 
citizenship; and in making our own beloved country 
the one land where every man shall have a fair chance, 
where justice, religion, and charity shall unite in all 
true patriotism and in common service for every 
struggling race within and without our actual shores. 

Colonel Archibald Hopkins, of Washington, 
D. C, another classmate, writes: 

It is the general opinion of those who knew him 
that the best all-around impression of General Arm- 
strong was given in an article in the Atlantic Monthly 
by his classmate, the Rev. Dr. John H. Denison. 
[See extracts from this article, page 17.] A series of 
admirable addresses have also been made in regard to 
him on Founder's Day, at Hampton. There are, 
however, a few points in regard to him which have 
perhaps not been emphasized, but which were by no 
means neghgible in his make-up. 

One of these was his keen and never-failing sense 
of humor, his quick appreciation of everything that 
was ludicrous or amusing. He would break out over 
some comparatively trifling incident into rollicking, 
contagious laughter, and if there was any fun going on 
within reach he was sure to be in it. There was always 
a shout of welcome from the children when he ap- 
peared, and he would go down on all fours and join 
in their romps and frolics, or sing to them, "The King 
of the Cannibal Islands," or a caterwauling Chinese 
song, one of the most admired of his repertoire. Base- 
ball and football were very little played then; but he 
was a bold and graceful rider, a fearless swimmer, and 
skilful with the foils and gloves, in the use of which 



84 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

his mental and physical vigor and alertness and his 
quickness of eye made him a formidable opponent. 

Sometimes so intense was his nature in all its mani- 
festations that his onsets in these contests would be- 
come so fierce as to make it almost seem that he had 
passed the bounds of sport, and was aiming to dis- 
arm or beat down his antagonist. 

This alertness and intensity he carried into every- 
thing that he did. A strong and tenacious wiU that 
had made abiding choice of service to mankind as the 
guiding purpose of his life, kept all his powers and pro- 
pensities under control, and generosity and unselfish- 
ness became as natural to him as breathing. His mind 
was vigorous, analytical, and retentive. He liked to 
discuss philosophic themes as well as all the topics of 
the day, and while he could not be called bookish, he 
was well versed in and appreciated the best Hterature. 
As a roommate and companion he was most stimulat- 
ing and enjoyable, and once he had formed an at- 
tachment and given his confidence there could be no 
truer friend. 

Immediately after graduation, in September, '62, he 
went to Troy, where without previous acquaintance 
and backing, he raised a company and became its 
captain. He was soon promoted to Major and at 
Gettysburg commanded his regiment with great 
courage and distinction. Becoming convinced that 
the most important question growing out of the war 
was the future of the slaves, both on their own account 
and because of their relation to the welfare of the 
country at large, he accepted the colonelcy of a black 
regiment and rose to the command of a brigade. 
Having determined to devote himself to the better- 
ment of the emancipated slaves, he was put in charge 
of the Freedmen's Bureau at Hampton and there con- 
ceived and worked out the plan of an industrial and 
normal school, the first of its kind, and by his untiring 
devotion and indomitable energy built up the great 
institution which has become his lasting monument. 

I joined him in 1866 for six months and was witness 
of the patience, tact, justice, and skill with which he 
handled the great aggregation of freedmen gathered 
there, winning the affection of the blacks and the re- 



HOW OTHERS SAW HIM 85 

spect and confidence of the whites as well, against 
whom he was sometimes compelled to rule in the con- 
troversies that arose. 

One other thing I should mention, which camping 
and tramping with him and the early days at Hampton 
made noticeable, and that was his entire indifference 
to anything like hardship or deprivation of everyday 
comfort when he was working for an object. He 
seemed unconscious of anything of the sort. . . . 
Nothing would more surely promote the efficiency of 
our military service than an adoption of the lofty 
ideals of duty and self-sacrifice and an aspiration to 
attain the standard of courage, fitness, and hardihood 
which belonged to Samuel G. Armstrong. 

From Rev. H. T. Perry, missionary in 
Turkey, also of the class of '62 : 

When as a youth I first met Armstrong on his 
arrival at WiUiamstown, his strong, masterly, mis- 
sionary purpose bound me to him very closely. I 
had previously reached the decision to give my life to 
foreign mission service, and therefore we were talking 
together much on that subject. In reply to my ques- 
tion as to his returning to the Hawaiian Islands he 
rephed, "Perhaps I will try some other race." This 
way of stating his purpose reveals a phase of his char- 
acter which may well have a large influence upon 
young men now. It was not to get or do something 
for himself in the world, but on the contrary to give 
himself in some service for the race which would be 
found the most in need, that the hght of the gospel 
might shine into the darkest places in all this world of 
sin and shame. Because of this viewpoint, so different 
from that of most students, I was greatly attracted to 
him. In the hne of this clear and vigorous purpose he 
entered the Civil War when we graduated. His part- 
ing word in my little autograph book was, "Yours till 
we lose sight of each other in the smoke." It was 
even then clear to us that his enthusiasm was not so 
much to "save the Union" as to crush the power of 
slavery in the United States. 

After the shattering of his regiment at Gettysburg, 



86 A LEADER OF FREEMEN 

Ms seeking a position to lead the negro soldiers was in 
line with his life purpose of giving himself. What a 
fine opportunity it was to reach that mass of dis- 
couraged, distracted humamity! And how nobly he 
used it! The young men in our army camps should 
have no lower life purpose. Armstrong wanted to be 
of use to his fellow-men. Loyalty to the Lord Jesus 
Christ, a determination to do his will in the world, 
and to have a share in his victory of righteousness and 
peace in both hemispheres — this is the noble motive 
which should appeal to every earnest young man in 
the ranks of our army and navy. As Armstrong finely 
said, "It pays to foUow one's best light — to put God 
and country first, ourselves afterward." 

May this present war develop many a char- 
acter as fine as that of Samuel Chapman 
Armstrong I 









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